The Bitter Taste of Fruit Returns

They’ve come—at last, those Spokane Fruit Growers returns. But Oh, Boy, there wasn’t any of that ‘Grand and Glorious feeling’ when the growers opened the envelopes. Nothing but a feeling of goneness like that experienced when one searches frantically in his pockets for the $10 bill he knew he had a short time before, but which he realizes now is lost, strayed or stolen. Seldom has a company entered a field more highly recommended than were the Spokane Fruit Growers company when they signed up the local growers in this valley last summer, and the confidence instilled at that time has abided with them quite generally at White Bluffs until about 7 o’clock Wednesday evening when the growers began getting their mail. Throughout the season, statements from the company’s officers were all to the effect that the fruit was being sold at good prices, and the returns on the carload shipments of peaches were very satisfactory; but the returns on the apples and pears—well, to say the least, they were away below what the growers expected. To thresh the matter out, compare notes and decide on what action the growers will take in regard to marketing their fruit this year, there will be a meeting at the school house Saturday evening at 8 o’clock. Every grower should be present and say his say.